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I read through this book and surprisingly enough, didn't find that much to get excited about. The basis of his method is non-grafting, using large quantities of bees to start and finish the cells, and feeding of honey rather than sugar syrup.

What I would add today is use of collected pollen to enhance the nutritional status of the starters and finishers.

It is a very good book to read but there are other queen breeding books that should be considered.

The small scale queen breeder will have difficulty adapting some of the methods because they are set up for raising large numbers of queens.

Looks like, and I have only gottan through about half the book, that he is suggesting using the "punching" method of queen rearing were you cut up some cells and place them on a frame with no grafting.

&gt;I read through this book and surprisingly enough, didn't find that much to get excited about. The basis of his method is non-grafting, using large quantities of bees to start and finish the cells, and feeding of honey rather than sugar syrup.

His goal is the "best possible queens". His previous book, "Queen Rearing Simplified", which I hope someday to put online as well, was for many years "the" book on grafting. If you want to make a lot of good queens, it's a good book

&gt;It is a very good book to read but there are other queen breeding books that should be considered.

Most of which are variations on his methods in "Queen Rearing Simplified".

&gt;The small scale queen breeder will have difficulty adapting some of the methods because they are set up for raising large numbers of queens.

True, he doesn't really talk about the little breeder until the end, but you can still do graftless queen rearing with a scaled down version of his system.

&gt;Looks like, and I have only gottan through about half the book, that he is suggesting using the "punching" method of queen rearing were you cut up some cells and place them on a frame with no grafting.

Sort of. But he's cutting STRIPS out not, puching one cell.

&gt;I am trying to understand the wood frames...?

He's trying to limit where the queen has to lay so she will lay in the new comb he gives her every day, and not find some other nice place to lay, while at the same time giving her and the bees some room.

&gt;Also,was Mr. Smith using hives with frames that ran the "warm" way? That is the only way I can see to create a front and rear compartment?

He was fond of Dadant hives. I don't have the pictures handy right now, as I sent them with a friend to scan them in.

Thanks for the info. There's lots of stuff in this little book that would take a queen producer decades to discover. At least it took me that long :&gt

And yep, the bees will always make the best queen possible with the resources available. A queen producer, who understands this, will be way ahead of the crowd when he works with his bees instead of the other way around.

Grafting techniques can still be used to maximize very early larva feeding. It requires using a Chinese grafting tool. With it, a larva can be grafted as soon as the egg bends over and the bees supply the very first feed. It will look just like a damp spot on the bottom of the cell with the egg laying down on it. With other tools, it's impossible to consistently graft such young larva without damaging them.

But even the Chinese tool must cause some disturbance. And I'm not quite sure that the waxing, dunking, cooling, etc. of the cell strip, used with Jay's method, would cause less disturbance than using the Chinese tool.

The best method might be something like a Hopkins method that could be done with eggs in the comb an d no disturbance to the larva at all.

I've built a tool for grafting eggs according to Steve Taber's plans. But I've only tested it on a limited basis. I got the same kind of results he did.

I'm planning on more work with the Hopkins method. It has the added advantage of not needing any special equipment except a shim to hold it up.

One of the nice things about a Jenter is that you can transfer them when they are so small you can't hardly see them as anything but a slight break in the smooth surface of the food AND you get all the food with the transfer.

I don't handle queens much. I use a hair clip queen catcher most of the time to catch her and put her in the Jenter box. You still have to be gentle of course, but it's easier than accidentally pushing her down too hard.

I am enjoying the queen muff a lot. I have had only one queen fly since I bought it and that was my own fault.

&gt;This work alone makes my small contribution to the site insignificant. I shall be sending a little Christmas gift to the site.

That's a great idea. I think you should. But just to clarify, the book is not on this site, as in www.beesource.com, it's on my site, as in www.bushfarms.com. Since I'm not collecting contributions, one for here would always be appreciated by all of us, I'm sure.

I haven't had much chance to do much more than scan the forums lately so I missed your question about other reader formats. I'm sorry that I don't have software to make other formats. Maybe someone reading the forums will chime in with a solution for you.

Thanks again Michael for making "Better Queens" available to all of us.

I'm not quite clear on Jay's technique of cutting the comb into strips. What happens to the larvae on the other side of the midrib of the comb? I can't make out exactly what is happening here from the pictures. I'm guessing they are just entombed when the wax is brushed on. Is that what is happening?

Thanks

Tim

You cannot move a grain of sand upon the beach that you do not effect the entire universe.